Sometimes punk can teach you things you would have never learned any other way. Searching for Lemuria on the internet led me to a wikipedia page where I could read that Lemuria is the name for a hypothetical landmass between India and Madagascar very, very long ago. This theory was brought up by biologists Ernst Haeckel and Melchior Neumayr while the name Lemuria is an invention of geologist Philip Sclater. Basis of this theory is the fact that lemurs are living in India and on Madagascar but in no place between these two regions. An erg on the other hand is either an old unit of energy, a large flat area of desert covered with shifting wind-swept sand or a mutant from the Marvel universe. Who said education must be boring?

On this 7” however Ergs as well as Lemuria are simply punk bands who dedicated themselves to melodic pop punk. In this case pop doesn’t mean blah but great hooklines and singalongs. The Ergs! are more into the No Idea school kind of melodic punk with a little melancholy and great lead guitars while Lemuria are more driven by 80s/90s emotional punk. I really like the way the male and female vocals fit together. Both bands are very good and make me wanna hear more of them than the two songs each they serve here. But I really don’t know what they want to express with that cover artwork… Anyway, good record and Lemuria will be on tour throughout Europe in September but a glance at their schedule tells me I probably won’t see them. :(
[jan]